# Letter, Co. Offaly: townland, land parcels and planning

Townland in the civil parish of Letterluna, barony of Ballybritt, Co. Offaly; in Irish Leitir.

- Area (Tailte Éireann): 914,379 m² (91.44 ha, 225.95 acres)
- Land parcels (Tailte Éireann): 3 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in it, median 420,317 m² (42.03 ha, 103.86 acres)
- Zoning (national zoning, MyPlan): not in a zoned settlement
- Planning (National Planning Applications): 1 application since 2010
- Civil parish: Letterluna, https://everytownland.com/offaly/parish/letterluna.md
- Barony: Ballybritt
- Electoral division: Letter, the unit of the census
- Census 2022 (Central Statistics Office): Letter electoral division: 161 people in 55 households; 89% of households own their home; 29% of homes were built since 2001; 5% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 2% were holiday homes.
- County: Co. Offaly, https://everytownland.com/offaly.md
- Placenames Database of Ireland: https://www.logainm.ie/en/41463
- Townland number at Tailte Éireann: 180898
- Centre: latitude 53.118931, longitude -7.658421 (WGS 84)

## Land parcels (registered freehold land, Tailte Éireann)

3 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Letter, from 52,954 m² (5.3 ha, 13.09 acres) to 441,712 m² (44.17 ha, 109.15 acres); 17 neighbouring parcels touch its boundary. Largest first:

- Parcel 287033: 441,712 m² (44.17 ha, 109.15 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/287033.md
- Parcel 314007: 420,317 m² (42.03 ha, 103.86 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/314007.md
- Parcel 303394: 52,954 m² (5.3 ha, 13.09 acres), https://everytownland.com/parcel/303394.md

## Zoning (national zoning of development plans, MyPlan)

No zone of a development plan covers Letter in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply to each application.

## Planning applications whose site touches the townland (National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage)

1 application, newest first.

- 3 Jul 2017, Offaly County Council 17236: Conditional. Permission. A FOREST ACCESS ROAD AND WIDER ENTRANCE TO EXISTING LAND ACCESS AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS. File: https://www.eplanning.ie/OffalyCC/AppFileRefDetails/17236/0

Applicants are not shown.

## Designated sites (National Parks and Wildlife Service)

- Special Protection Area: Slieve Bloom Mountains SPA, site code 004160, https://www.npws.ie/protected-sites/spa/004160

## Recorded monuments (Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service)

- OF037-002001: Church, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2COF037-002001-. Situated on a slight rise in upland area with holy well (OF037-002003-) to NW. The W end of the N wall are the only standing remains of this poorly preserved church located in the S sector of a possible graveyard (OF037-002002-) which is enclosed by an earth and stone bank. The surviving wall has a simple flat headed window and displays evidence internally of supporting an E-W barrel vault presumably belonging to a priests residence which appears to have been added on to the W end of the church. No other architectural features visible. The church was built with randomly coursed limestone and sandstone blocks. The wall footings the church measured 26.6m E-W by 4.9m N-S. The width of the church at the W end was 9.2m due to the addition of the priests chamber, with wall thickness measuring 1.5m in order to carry the weight of the vault. Elsewhere the wall thickness measures 0.8m. According to O' Flanagan (1933, vol. 2, 80) the W end of the church was two storeys high with a stairs connecting both floors in the NW corner with main entrance in the W gable. Two pieces of sculptured stone were taken from this church and used in the building of Cadamstown church in the 19th-century, both are Romanesque in date. One of them is a carved head (OF037-013001-) which acted as a corbel while the second piece is a Hiberno-Romanesque hood moulding terminal (OF037-013003-) similar to the ones found in Clonmacnoise. An Early Christian cross-slab (OF037-013002-) also from Letter was found incorporated into the W gable of Cadamstown church during recent restoration. Another Romanesque stone fragment possibly from Letter was recently discovered on top of a gate pillar at Cadamstown House. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011
- OF037-002002: Graveyard, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2COF037-002002-. Situated on a slight rise in upland area with holy well (OF037-002003-) to NW. The W end of the N wall are the only standing remains of this poorly preserved church (OF037-002001-) located in the S sector of a possible graveyard which is enclosed by an earth and stone bank. No gravemarkers visible. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011
- OF037-002003: Ritual site - holy well, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2COF037-002003-. Poorly preserved holy well with dry stone wall facing on one side only, no other features visible. Church (OF037-002001-) located immediately to the SE. Associated with St. Lugna (O' Flanagan 1933 vol. 2, 80). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011
- OF037-002004: Cross-slab, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2COF037-002004-. Discovered incorporated into the W gable of Cadamstown Church in the 19th-century when recent replastering of the W gable revealed an Early Christian cross-slab (OF037-013002-) that originally came from Letter graveyard (OF037-002002-). Cross referenced with OF037-013002. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011
- OF037-009001: Hilltop enclosure, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2COF037-009001-. Situated on top of high ground in mountainous region with good views in all directions. Site consists of an earthen bank running E-W across the N face of a low hill which may originally have enclosed the hilltop. Possible ring-barrow (OF037-009002-) located inside the earthen bank on top of the hilltop. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011
- OF037-009002: Burial mound, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2COF037-009002-. Situated on top of high ground with good views in all directions. Possible ring-barrow or burial mound situated inside possible hillfort (OF037-009001-). Site consists of a cicrular flat-topped mound (Top diam. 7m; base diam. 15m) with circular depression (Wth 2m; D 0.7m) on top of mound with evidence of stone kerbing around edge of depression. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011
- OF037-019: House - 17th century, https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2COF037-019----. Two storey high gable ended house with high pitched roof and rendered walls with two large protruding chimney stacks at rear of house. According to local information facade of house was rebuilt in the 19th-century. Probable late 17th century house with 19th-century facade. Letter was in the possession of the Adair family in the 17th centuryand later passed into the ownership of the Manifold family the latter may have been responsible for building Letter House (Feehan 1979, 143) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

## Architectural heritage (National Inventory of Architectural Heritage)

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands in the townland of Letter.

## Ground and risks (Radon Risk Map of Ireland, EPA; Landslide Susceptibility Classification and LiDAR, Geological Survey Ireland)

- Radon: About 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home: https://www.epa.ie/environment-and-you/radon/radon-testing/#d.en.82887
- Landslides: Susceptibility moderately low, low, low (inferred), on the 1:50,000 map.
- Terrain model: no LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of the townland of Letter.
- Flooding: the flood maps of the Office of Public Works, https://www.floodinfo.ie/map/floodmaps/, linked only: their licence does not allow re-use.

LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

## Downloads

- DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its boundary, parcels and buildings, for a drawing program: https://everytownland.com/offaly/letter.dxf
- GeoJSON, in WGS 84, for a map: https://everytownland.com/offaly/letter.geojson
- KML, for Google Earth: https://everytownland.com/offaly/letter.kml

## Homes sold (Residential Property Price Register)

No address of the register names Letter with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Offaly: https://everytownland.com/offaly.md

## Neighbouring townlands (National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann)

- Ballykelly: https://everytownland.com/offaly/ballykelly.md
- Clogh: https://everytownland.com/offaly/clogh.md
- Coolcreen: https://everytownland.com/offaly/coolcreen.md
- Deerpark: https://everytownland.com/offaly/deerpark-180558.md
- Lackaroe: https://everytownland.com/offaly/lackaroe.md
- Magherabane: https://everytownland.com/offaly/magherabane-180939.md

A townland is the smallest land division of Ireland, and the unit of a rural address; old registers such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses file it under its civil parish and barony.

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Everytownland reads the registered freehold land and the statutory boundaries of Tailte Éireann, the national zoning, planning file and heritage records of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Residential Property Price Register. A parcel is the land of a title, not an address. The owner's name is in the Land Registry of Tailte Éireann: a copy of the folio can be ordered on landdirect.ie, for a fee; this site names no owner. A price is the price recorded for a past sale, not a valuation.

Sources: Cadastral Parcels Freehold, Townlands, Civil Parishes, Baronies, Electoral Divisions and Buildings, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0; national zoning of development plans (GZT, MyPlan) and National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0, applicants not shown; designated sites, National Parks and Wildlife Service, CC BY 4.0; Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service, CC BY 4.0; National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, CC BY 4.0; Residential Property Price Register, Property Services Regulatory Authority, re-used with the source acknowledged.

- Page: https://everytownland.com/offaly/letter
- In JSON: https://everytownland.com/api/townland/offaly/letter